Leaving It All Behind

Why Discipleship Requires Risk, Surrender, and Faith

The lectionary gospel for this coming Sunday is Luke 5:1-11:

Once while Jesus^a was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ² he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” ⁶ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” ¹¹ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

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Jesus Had a Lot of Nerve

Simon was just trying to go home.

He and his crew had just finished an exhausting all-nighter, cleaning their nets after a long, fruitless shift. Not a single catch. They were probably thinking about grabbing a meal and finally getting some rest.

Anyone who has ever worked nights can relate. Imagine the eye-roll Simon must have given Jesus when he asked him to take the boat out again after an unsuccessful night of fishing.

I remember working nights when I first started as a government security contractor. My shift ran from 3:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. By the time we returned to the shop, the last thing I wanted was to talk to Darrell, our boss. Now, Darrell was a good guy—actually the kind of boss everyone wanted—but after a night of pulling our hair out because the person who designed what we were installing wasn’t answering their phone at 3:00 a.m., the last thing I needed was small talk. Worse, I dreaded the "opportunity" to pick up a few extra hours of overtime.

Some of my co-workers—this is not a confession—would park on the opposite side of the business park just to avoid running into Darrell or any other manager looking for someone to stay longer.

Working nights is no joke. Friends and family don’t understand why you're still asleep at 1:00 p.m. As the sun rises, all you want is to lay your head down and rest. Simon and his partners, James and John, had just endured a failed all-nighter, and now a traveling preacher had commandeered one of their boats.

Jesus had drawn quite a crowd, large enough that he needed some distance from them to teach effectively. Simon was kind enough to push him out a little from shore so the people could still hear him. And because it was Simon’s boat, he, along with James and John, remained within earshot of what Jesus was saying.

Then, Jesus did something bold. Not only had he already interrupted their routine, but now he told Simon to set out for another fishing expedition. Imagine hearing that request:

"You want me to do what? Don’t you realize what we’re doing? We’ve just spent all night fishing, and if you haven’t noticed, there aren’t piles of fish anywhere! We did a lot of casting but no catching."

Like my boss asking if I wanted to work a few extra hours, Jesus' request must have seemed absurd. But something about Jesus’ presence, something about what Simon had been hearing from him, led Simon to comply.

Simon pushed off from shore, went out into deeper waters, and let down his nets.

“Calling the Disciples” 1999. Oil on canvas, He Qi

The Challenge of Discipleship

Following is tough. Discipleship is not easy.

Discipleship is one of those church words we throw around but rarely define. I feel the same way about discipleship as Pastor Ed feels about the word "awesome"—both are powerful, yet overused and often misunderstood.

Discipleship is not a one-way endeavor. It involves both teaching and learning, leading and following, invitation and response.

When Simon obeyed, the nets came up overflowing—so full that another boat had to come help. Even with the extra help, the catch was too large, and both boats began to sink under the weight of abundance.

Overwhelmed, Simon fell to his knees: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” In that moment, Simon realized who Jesus truly was. His response wasn’t just awe—it was fear, reverence, and confession. He knew he was unworthy to be in the presence of the divine.

But the real turning point comes next. Jesus tells him, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."

With those words, Simon, James, and John did something extraordinary: they left behind the biggest catch of their careers. They abandoned their nets, their boats, their families—everything—to follow the man who had just provided abundantly where they had failed.

A Two-Way Encounter

Discipleship is never a solo journey. It is always a response to an encounter with the abundant grace of God.

First, Simon, James, and John experienced the abundance of God in a way they could understand—through fish. The sheer enormity of the catch pointed to something greater than their own abilities. The abundance must have initially frightened them, but it also signaled that Jesus was worth following.

Jesus sought these men out. Before he stepped into Simon’s boat, they were just exhausted fishermen trying to go home after a bad night. That’s the way discipleship works. Before you or I ever made the decision to follow Jesus, Jesus was already revealing the awesome abundance of God in ways that made sense in our lives.

This invitation isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some hear God’s voice clearly, unmistakably. Others, like me—and I suspect many of you—experience God’s abundance in ways that only make sense in hindsight. We may not have had a dramatic moment of calling, but at some point, we realized: God has been here all along.

“Calling the Disciples” - Ghirlandaio, Domenico

Simon’s response in the boat isn’t unique. When the abundance of God is revealed to us, we recognize our unworthiness. We confess that we are not worthy to be in the same boat as Jesus, let alone follow him. But then, after that moment of repentance, we hear Christ’s words: “Do not be afraid.” And we receive a new calling.

Leaving everything behind—our security, our plans, our comfort—is daunting. But the promise of God’s abundance is too compelling to ignore.

Finding Abundance in the Ordinary

The abundance of God was revealed to Simon, James, and John through something as ordinary as fish. I love eating fish, but when I’m at the grocery store, I’m not expecting to encounter God in the seafood aisle. Maybe I should be.

For us as a church, the abundance of God is revealed in another ordinary meal: bread and wine.

Juice and water at the baptismal font.

These objects may seem small, but for our community, they are sacred. They are tangible signs of God’s grace, sustaining us for the vocation Jesus calls us to, both as individuals and as a church.

Discipleship—laying down our nets, leaving behind what we know—is not something we calculate and plan for. It is a response. A response to the overwhelming, awesome, and abundant grace of God that meets us—often at the end of a long, frustrating night—when our nets have come up empty.